2023-11-06 08:21:43
The Royal Society
The Royal Society
Woolly rhino DNA could be reconstructed from fossilized cave hyena excrement.
PREHISTORY – Feces are a gold mine of information. This sentence, which could start a new genre of Jurrassic Park film, works perfectly if we look at this study published last November 1 in the journal The Royal Society. We learn that researchers were able to reconstruct the mitochondrial genome, (editor’s note: an essential part of cells) of a woolly rhinoceros or Coelodonta of antiquity in an original way.
To do this, the researchers did not go looking for a corpse or fossil of this species. They instead went to extract this DNA from fossilized excrement of cave hyenas or Crocuta crocuta cavean extinct carnivorous species that fed on woolly rhinoceroses.
A first in Europe
Led by molecular biologist Peter Andreas Seeber of the University of Konstanz in Germany, a team of researchers studied two fossilized hyena scats from the Middle Paleolithic (between 300,000 and 30,000 BCE), in a region which is today Germany.
Using specialized tools and a DNA sequencer, they managed to recover that of the woolly rhinoceros, in a degraded state. To fully restore it, the researchers then compared it to other genomes, modern and ancient. Although it comes from a single animal, this DNA sample tells us more about the diversification of this species.
Indeed, this is the first genome discovered of this species on the old continent, since all other available data came from Siberian animals. This find demonstrates that the European woolly rhinoceros and its Siberian cousin began to diversify around 450,000 years ago. A bit like the Siberian or Sumatran tiger, etc. However, researchers are careful not to overinterpret these data, gathered using a single sample.
Fossilized excrement, abandoned gold mines
This discovery is particularly interesting and relates to Parisian greets Antigone Uzunidis, paleontologist at the University of Aix-Marseille: “It is a technical feat to differentiate between different types of DNA. Succeeding in separating them is a very interesting step forward.” To work, choosing hyena excrement helped because it is an animal whose digestive system allows it to better preserve ancient DNA.
Like these samples, “many archaeological objects recovered during past excavations and existing in collections constitute a largely neglected source of ancient DNA to date” notes the study. Thanks to the preserved feces, it is possible to determine the diet of each species, the parasites that infected them and even study the evolution in the microbiome of certain species.
Furthermore, this data source is not difficult to access: “the fact that these were recovered with relative ease from a coprolite [ndlr : un excrément fossilisé] from another species highlights the value of obtaining genomic data from a wide range of materials,” add the researchers. Last year, a study has even been published on the subjectexplaining how coprolites present in museum collections constitute a neglected and underutilized resource in the study of the biological history of our planet.
Also see on Le HuffPost :
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